Fireplace Rebuild
In our opinion, the original fireplace in this house left quite a bit to be desired. Luckily, we were already making a mess of our house with the kitchen, so we pulled the trigger and demolished all of the old bricks back in November of 2004.
Unfortunately, the fireplace stayed that way until May of this year when we finally had the time to head out to Thompsons Construction and pick out our new flagstone. A couple of days later, the flagstone came in and we were ready to start putting this thing together.
We started by stealing some old bricks from my dad’s house (free is always good) and laying a new wall to be used as a backing for the flagstone. Once the bricks were securely mortared to the wall and perfectly level, we started cutting and applying the flagstone in layered sections. After several sessions of stacking stone, waiting for it to dry, stacking more stone, and waiting for it to dry, we reached the top and were ready for the mantel.
Next, Dad and I headed out to our favorite hardwood supplier (The Hardwood and Hardware) and picked out some beautiful pieces of quarter-sawn oak that would ultimately match the color of our kitchen cabinets perfectly. In trying to keep with the mission style of the rest of our furniture, we decided to keep the mantle pretty simple. So we started with a thick mantel top supported by a slowly arched rail with box-joints at the corners for an added ‘craftsman’ effect.
The finishing touch came with the addition of the brushed nickel framed, tempered glass, fire-screen doors in mid July. Why mid July? Because we found out a little late in the game that reasonably nice fire-screen doors cost a fortune and only come in ‘custom order’ sizes… Word from the now experienced; look into the cost of these BEFORE you rip out the old fireplace!
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